Chapter 10 - The bullet struck the wall inches from Julian's head.Elena screamed.

Ava fired back.

Daniel dove behind a pillar.

“Stop!” Elena shouted.

Nobody listened.

Daniel shouted:

“Julian, stay down!”

Another gunshot.

Julian moved behind the steel cabinet.

“You just shot at me!”

“I missed!”

“Why?”

“Because I was trying to scare you!”

Elena stared at her father.

“What is happening?”

Daniel lowered his gun.

He looked exhausted.

“Victor has surveillance everywhere.”

Ava stepped closer.

“You're working with him.”

“No.”

“Then why did you shoot?”

“Because I needed him to believe I was.”

Elena looked at Julian.

“He's lying.”

Daniel shook his head.

“I'm not.”

He pulled out a small device.

“I planted a transmitter.”

Ava looked at it.

“You've been tracking Victor?”

“Yes.”

Julian emerged from behind the cabinet.

“You could have told us.”

“I couldn't trust anyone.”

Julian pointed toward Elena.

“You trusted her.”

Daniel smiled sadly.

“She was the reason I came back.”

Elena frowned.

“How?”

Daniel looked at her.

“Your mother didn't abandon you.”

“She gave me away.”

“To save you.”

“From Victor?”

“From herself.”

Elena stared.

Daniel continued.

“Victoria discovered that Ava had been implanted with the biometric technology.”

“She wanted to remove it.”

“But Victor threatened the girls.”

“So Victoria made a choice.”

“She sent you away.”

“Ava stayed.”

Elena shook her head.

“You're saying she sacrificed me?”

“No.”

Daniel looked at Ava.

“She sacrificed herself.”

Ava didn't speak.

Daniel walked toward the central computer.

“The vault was never designed to store money.”

Julian frowned.

“Then what was it?”

“A database.”

“Of what?”

Daniel pressed a key.

Thousands of names appeared.

Politicians.

Judges.

Police officers.

Bankers.

Business owners.

Journalists.

“This is the Black Meridian network.”

Julian stared.

“Everyone on that list was compromised.”

Daniel nodded.

“Bribes.”

“Blackmail.”

“Financial crimes.”

“Murder.”

Elena looked at the screen.

Then stopped.

One name made her blood freeze.

JULIAN STERLING.

She stepped closer.

“No.”

Julian stared at the screen.

Beside his name was a photograph.

But the photograph was impossible.

It showed Julian as a newborn.

Being held by a nurse.

Behind them stood Victoria.

And another woman.

Elena gasped.

“That isn't your mother.”

Julian looked closer.

He recognized the woman.

His face went white.

“She looks like you.”

Elena stared at the photograph.

The woman was her.

Or someone who looked exactly like her.

Daniel whispered:

“There is another secret.”

Julian turned.

“What?”

Daniel looked at Elena.

“Victoria didn't have one daughter.”

He paused.

“She had three.”

Silence.

Ava stepped backward.

“No.”

Daniel looked toward the ceiling.

“Victor took the third child.”

Elena's heart raced.

“Where?”

Daniel said:

“We don't know.”

Suddenly every screen in the room switched on.

A woman's face appeared.

Not Ava.

Not Elena.

A third sister.

She smiled.

“Hello.”

Elena couldn't breathe.

The woman looked directly at her.

“You shouldn't have opened the vault.”

Julian whispered:

“Who are you?”

The woman smiled.

“I'm the one Mother actually chose.”

Ava's face went pale.

Daniel whispered:

“Isabella.”

The woman laughed.

“You remember me.”

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